12 x 5

12 x 5 is the second album in The Stones discography. It was released in October of 1964. In the past ten days I have had enough time to let this music really soak in. On the weekends I make a point to take trips to visit friends. Through this practice I spend a lot of hard time racing down the 401 at dangerous speeds and I’ve come to know and understand what makes a good car album. This album is not what I’d call a good car album, but I’ll tell you, when I was bumper-to-bumper in hot-frustration the soothing melodies: Under the Board Walk and Congratulations from this disc really cooled me down.

When The Stones were touring in this period one of their most popular tunes from this album was a Bobby Womack cover: It’s over now –which is a pretty rocking tune that ranked third on the UK’s top forty. Overall I’d like to think that this album is alright. I’m starting to understand the unkeptness about The Stones which I think is most prominent in Jaggars voice. He’s got a sound of untameness –something that’s rugged, most notable in harmonies, I think, and it comes across as very deep and bluesy. Richard’s swanky guitar riffs range from a thick honky-tonk to a jazzy sound that compliments Jaggar nicely.

A few months prior to this release was The Beatle’s A Hard Days Night album which I know had a handful of songs ranking pretty high on the top 50 charts in the UK as well as the US.